The Value of Nothing

"The Value of Nothing - How to reshape market society and redefine democracy", by Raj Patel.

This book is about Socialistic Economics. Even if you think "socialism" is a bad word, you'll still do well to pay attention.

The popular explanation for the global economic crisis of 2008-2010 is that a few key regulations were missing to keep the markets from getting out of control. But Patel argues, the problem is more fundamental. It's a political problem. It's that our democracies aren't really democratic. We resort to the markets to make every economic decision for us. But are we sure the markets give the right answer? Patel says 'absolutely not'. Markets work only for the powerful. They get to make the rules (and the models and the policies), and they game the system to boot. Markets price goods and services based on the limited data they are fed in, and that's often very incomplete. That new cell phone is "free" for you, but it's far from free for the people in the coltan mining region of Congo. These people, especially the women, suffer great brutality: rape, torture, slavery and murder, in the hands of the military units that patrol these mines. Our markets do not price in such externalities. The markets don't give the right answer for these Congolese people, for sure.

What we have is an unfair and unsustainable economic system based on the Ayn Randish theory that markets know best. Patel argues for a "commons" based system of collective ownership (rights + responsibilities) of the basic resources of life (land, water, air,..). He believes that in this approach lie the solutions to our food, climate and economic crises.

Patel does seem to have a lot of affection for Marxism, and is greatly influenced by Karl Polanyi's ideas of the "double movement". He seems to be well traveled, and cites a number of examples from around the globe of grass-roots movements, mostly of the under-privileged, that have fought market forces and succeeded in establishing some sort of a "commons".

He also argues for a more participative model of democracy, and cites various examples from around the globe, where participation of the masses has made a great positive change in the quality of governance. He acknowledges the impracticality of this model for large populations, but it is still something too intriguing to ignore.

There are several examples of groups of repressed people organizing themselves democratically, and fighting for their rights. One such, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers made a particular impression on me, especially as someone who loves tomatoes.

The book is fairly coherent, with intermingled flashes of wry humor and passion, bordering on anger. It is well researched, well written and not longer than necessary. I learnt a few new things and most importantly, got to see the world from a slightly newer angle.

Dreams from My Father

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance - Barack Obama

No need to mention Obama's writing skills. His story telling is very engaging. I listened to the audio book, and he reads it fantastically: uses different accents (not always consistently, but enough to add a dimension); a must read to understand the man.

The Tipping Point

"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

the author has hit upon one idea, that social phenomena may spread like viruses, small infections at first and a sudden epidemic when a certain "tipping point" is reached. well, it is just a theory. without bothering to do any original studies, he quotes various other studies and material (which is all quite interesting information, btw), he goes on to build a pusedo-scientific theory. it's pop sociology, good for entertainment, and not much more. as a book, it gets repetitive and disjointed after a while. i guess, he just wrote several New Yorker articles and bunched them together into a book

National Highway 45

If you wanted to take the road from Chennai to Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, you would take NH45. Until a few years ago, though, if you had wanted to do that, I would have thought you were nuts.

But upon being suggested this very thing by my brother, and seconded by couple of others, I braved it. The new highway lived up to the hype. Our taxi guy was able to consistently clock the Toyota Innova 90-100 kmph in bursts along the divided, well paved, toll road. The ride was smooth and the early morning weather was nice, though a bit too foggy to be scenic.

Well, scenery is not something you should be concerning yourself with, if you desire reaching the destination as well. For, you see, these lorry drivers like to fly a tight formation - they are flying fighter jets in their minds anyway. It's quite a trick getting ahead of one of these formations, not unlike getting through a Sicilian Defense in chess, I'd imagine.

And oh, did I mention that now we have lanes clearly marked, with reflectors and what not?! Advisories are posted all along, in English, to "Follow Lane Discipline". They seem to be mostly heeded, but you'd be doing your life expectancy a favor if you didn't assume that any vehicle ahead of you in your lane if moving along in the same direction as you! Because, some special drivers, though observant of the lane discipline, sometimes seem to ignore small details like the direction of the lane. During our 4 hour ride, we encountered a police car, a fully loaded lorry, a bus and a couple of motor bikes, all headed straight at us in our lane (on our side of the divider). The cop car and the lorry I can understand: they are the kings of the road. I don't understand what the bikers were thinking.

One thing that struck me was the amount of heavy machinery on the roads. Seeing even a single bulldozer in these places in the deep south is startling. But I saw dozens of them, not just near the big city, but all over. I saw huge cranes at work at construction sites. This is all like seeing an elephant when go on a drive on California Hwy 1.

Speaking of elephants, the customary sighting happened within 24 hours of landing here. It was my 3yr old's turn to be astonished: beyond the "huuuuuuuuuuugeeeee....!!!", he was lost for words upon seeing the local temple mammoth taking a stroll in front of our house. Surprises huge and small are around the corner all the time. Imagine the delight when a bunch of goats showed up at our door step at the appointed hour to devour the vegetable waste my mom saves for them. Not all surprises are pleasant though; especially not those huge "flying spiders" - i.e. mosquitoes!

Apart from mosquitoes, the other thing in abundance is human resources. You kind of notice this at the numerous toll stations along the NH45. Not only are the booths manned by humans at any hour, there are additional persons doing stuff like waving the incoming vehicle to a particular lane (even though there are functioning red/green lights to do that job), writing down the license place numbers, acting as a go-between between the booth guy and the driver, etc.

All said and done, we made it safe and sound out of NH45 and got home. Looking forward to 4 more weeks of India, especially as seen though the eyes of our 3 year old.

Fingerprints of God - but look suspiciously like the author's own

Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality - Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Full disclosure first: I am big Dawkins fan. But unlike Dawkins, I don't dismiss God, so my review of this book is not unfair.

It was good read: I learned about a few interesting science experiments and advances, that blur the lines between traditional science and faith. I appreciate the authors effort in doing all the research, and her openness in terms of sharing points of view she doesn't subscribe to. However I found her coming to conclusions (often slight variations of the same thing) that she wants to believe in, rather than what one would arrive at if one were to think critically. I also found her tone a bit arrogant, especially when she presumes she knows better than the scientists on how to interpret their results. It's also a very self-centered book, but she does admit it up front.

In summary: a good review of the state of the subject, but could be better presented if not for the authors bias.

The Last Theorem

The Last Theorem - Arthur C. Clarke

Sad that the grand master's last novel should be so disappointing. With almost no new ideas, the novel is a bit too long and a bit shallow. Except for a couple of instances, the main character's life is an idle romance: the authors sound out of touch with real people and real life. It's not to say the book doesn't have it's fine passages, but they are rare than you'd expect from Clarke.

obsession with the dead

There was a sensational headline today: "Galileo's lost body parts found". Aye!!! What a great day for science!

The same day when the Large Hadron Collider reopened after 14 months, which of course is a headline you'll have to search to find.

Forget the question of why staring at or owning the middle finger of Galileo would give anyone any appreciation of his talents or contributions, why that would make them feel connected to him, as opposed to say, reading his work. Even more basically, why do we fuss about the dead bodies of dead people? I can understand the sentiment immediately following the death, when we still see them as the person we knew. But after they are long gone, is there any meaning to the dead body parts?

Conversations with a 3 Year Old - #2

Him: I will throw you in the garbage
Me: (Instead of the usual, "that's not right" approach) If you do that, I'll be gone. You'll have no appa.
Him: Oh? I need appa.
Me: What do you need me for?
Him: I need you to play with me.
Me: See, that's why you should not...
Him, interrupting: Amma... do you know how to play cricket?

Ron Paul's "End The Fed"

Coming from strict constitutionalist and libertarian positions, subscribing to the Austrian school of economic thought with a strong influence of Ayn Rand, Ron Paul makes a passionate case against Fiat money, centralized banking, unlimited government powers in general, and the Federal Reserve in particular. He argues that the Fed's manipulation of value of the dollar, interest rates and, indirectly, prices is immoral, unconstitutional and will lead to economic destruction.

He explains how by creating money out of thin air, the Fed contributes to real inflation and so the debasement of the dollar, and helps funds wars and populist government programs. He vehemently urges a return to gold standard and a true market economy, with out manipulation by the Fed or any other central entity.

Some quotes:

"From April 2008 to April 2009, the adjusted monetary base shot up from $856 billion to an unbelievable $1.749 trillion. Was there any new wealth created? New production? No, this was the Ben Bernanke printing press at work. If you and I did anything similar, we would be called counterfeiters and be sent away for a lifetime in prison."

"The Fed's reports to Congress and hearings are for public consumption. Real information is not available to the public or to Congress, the Financial Services Committee, the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee, or to me as a member of all three."

"Governments... default by debasing the currency, reducing the value thereof, through inflation. .. This is the plan: massive debt and inflation to bail out friends, pretending to prop up the economy and liquidate debt. It never goes as planned. John Maynard Keynes knew that in a correction it is necessary to lower wages. That's why he supported inflation to force real wages down and do it without confronting labor with the need to lower nominal wages."

"Do the auto executives come to Washington to demand freedom - freedom to contract labor, freedom to retool when they please, freedom to choose the cars they build, freedom from central economic planners regulating their every move, freedom to make profit and keep it, freedom to fail? Do they demand a sound currency that would rectify the international trade imbalances?

No they come to Washington to demand that innocent Americans bail them out and protect a system that deserves no protection. They never come to demand that the government protect contracts rather than insisting on the government rewriting them. They beg to be taken over, nationalized, partnered with, to obey a car czar and sacrifice every bit of self-respect that they might retain."

Conversations with a 3 Year Old

A Teachable Moment

Me: Did I tell you that you should not jump around when climbing stairs?
Him: Yes
Me: What happened last night?
Him: I jumped and slipped, and rolled down the stairs.
Me: How did that feel?
Him: It hurt.
Me: What did I tell you about hitting bats on stuff?
Him: It's a bad idea.
Me: What happened just now?
Him: I hit the bat on the woofer.
Me: And what has happened?
Him: The bat became broke.
Me, with an air of pomp: So, what have we learnt from all this?
Him, sincerely: Nothing.


Curb that curiosity!

Him: Why have you propped this toy up, but not that one?
Me: Because that one is stable, but not this one.
Him: Why is that one stable, but not this one?
Me, muttering: It's hard to explain that to you.
Him: Why is it hard to explain that to me?
Me: Look! There is an air plane there!